COSC 2206: Internet Tools
JavaScript

Online references

Netscape's JavaScript client guide and client reference at developer.netscape.com

Microsoft's version of JavaScript is called JScript. Complete documentation is here in the Microsoft Development Network (MSDN) library.

This is the official standard for JavaSCript which is called ECMAScript

This is an excellent site that contains tutorials on many topics such as JavaScript. The tutorials are interactive.

These sites contain JavaScript resources such as tutorials, articles, useful scripts.

Local references

Reference books

There are many books on JavaScript and this is the best (Author: David Flanagan, Publisher: O'Reilly, ISBN: 0-596-00048-0). It is four books in one: (1) Core JavaScript, (2) Client-Side JavaScript, (3) Core JavaScript Reference, (4) Client-Side JavaScript Reference.

Simple JavaScript examples

Several ways to do the hello world program

Using JavaScript in the document head with document.writeln

Using JavaScript in the document body with document.writeln

Using a JavaScript function in the document head and a script to call it in the document body

Using a JavaScript function in an external file and a script to call it in the document body

Using an alert dialog box

Using the onLoad event handler to execute a function. Don't ever do it this way because the back button won't work

Array, loop, and function examples

Shows how to use a Date objec to insert the date and time into a document.

Shows that arrays are dynamic: their size can be changed after construction.

Shows that arrays are inhomogeneous: elements are references.

Associative arrays.

Example of the for in loop which is an iterator over the properties of an object. Here the document object is used.

A table of factorials using an n! function.

Recursive and non-reursive functions that reverse a string.

Two versions of the max function. One shows how to use an array argument and the other shows how functions with a variable number of arguments can be defined in JavaScript.

A format function that rounds numbers to two digits after the decimal point.

A document that illustrates several array methods.

Manipulating dates using the Date object.

Defining our own objects

A simple example using Point and Circle objects.

Client-side JavaScript examples

This example shows how to examine the properties of an object such as window or document.

A simple example using the alert, prompt and confirm dialog boxes.

Using JavaScript to write applications

A simple application that uses a form and input boxes to do circle calculations.

An application that does a frequency test of the random number generator.

As above but the results are written to a separate window.

Generating a table of random integers.

Generating a loan repayment table.

The game of craps in JavaScript.

Using the dom to draw a bar graph with a 1 by 1 gif file for the bar and manipulation of the width and height properties of an image.

Manipulating windows and images

Illustrating windows.open for pop up windows.

A simple back button using history

Changing an image dynamically using a link.

As above but simpler.

Confirming a link destination and Using empty links as event triggers.

Using a pop up window of links that are loaded in another window.

A slide show example

A slide show example using WebLab pictures.

Some rollover examples

A simple rollover example using onMouseOver in a link to change the color of an image by replacing it.

This version uses onMouseOver as an <img> tag atrtribute.

More examples of roll overs.

Simple form validation examples

Simple example to verify that a name has been entered before a form is submitted.

Validating an email address before a form is submitted.

Regular expressions

An application that can be used to test strings for matches specified by regular expressions.

A more general application that can be used to test strings for matches specified by regular expressions and also to replace matches by a replacement string.

Previous email validation example but using a regular expression.

Using a regular expression to validate a phone number.

A better version.

Normalize a first and last name.

Validate a name.

Simple DOM examples

Dynamic example using getElementById to change the colors of an element.

Dynamic example using getElementById and the CSS display property to toggle text visibility (adapted from JavaScript Visual QuickStart Guide).

Dynamic example using getElementById and the CSS visibility property to create simple drop down menus.

Dynamic example using getElementById, div and z-index

Dynamic example using getElementById and positioning properties.

Dynamic example using getElementById and CSS to do simple link roll overs.